Kevin Moyer, a Philadelphia property manager and landlord‑tenant attorney, obtained a right‑to‑know dataset from the City Solicitor’s Office containing over 9,000 eviction lockout records from the Philadelphia Sheriff’s Department (March 2025 – March 2026). He analyzed the time from tenant delinquency to completed lockout, finding an average of 7.7 months (≈ 231 days). The fastest quintile averages 5.3 months, the slowest 9.2 months, and the overall average has risen from 188 days in January 2025 to 205 days by March 2026, indicating a lengthening timeline across all quintiles. Some cases extend for years. Moyer explains the impact on landlords’ risk‑cost modeling and market predictability, and proposes allowing utility shut‑offs by property owners after a judge’s judgment of possession— a non‑violent method to expedite possession return and reduce Sheriff workload. He concludes with a call to subscribe to his newsletter for updates.
Chapters
Hey guys, Kevin Moyer with The Rowe Report here. Let's talk lockout timelines with the Sheriff's Department in Philadelphia, executing a judgment of possession to returning possession to a property owner in Philadelphia. I'm a property manager and landlord-tenant attorney in Philly, and man, I've really been struggling in getting the Sheriff's Department to execute these lockouts. So I thought, maybe it's just me. I reached out to the Sheriff's Department and I said, 'Can you send me the data that you're executing? I know you're sending the list to the tenants' organizations every week. Can you send me the list as well so I can start seeing who you're locking out and the timelines?' They wouldn't do it. And I said, 'Come on, just CC me on the email. I know you're already sending it out. Just include me in this information.' They refused to do it. So I submitted a formal right-to-know request to the city solicitor's office. They dragged their feet about 33 days and they finally submitted all the data. Thousands and thousands. I believe it was over 9,000 total records they submitted, and I combed through it. Turns out I'm not alone. The struggle is citywide in executing these lockouts. So remember, this is a lot. This is after the judge has already decided that possession is to be returned to the property owner. That goes to the Sheriff's Department, and they're responsible for executing it. By statute, it's supposed to take about 21 days— 10 days for the first writ, 11 days for the second writ for the lockout. In reality, it's taken a lot more than that. Let's dive into the data here. From March of 2025 through 2026, on average, it's taking 7.7 months from delinquency to lockout in Philadelphia through March of 2026. Now, this is including the 30 days for the eviction diversion program. You can see at the bottom here, but 7.7 months is the average timeline for cases that result in a lockout in Philadelphia. If you're in the fastest quintile, you can get that down to 5.3 months. And if you're in the slowest quintile, you're looking at 9.2 months. Again, this is from delinquency, the entire process through completed lockout. So when you're doing your pro formas and you're estimating your risk cost and everything, these are the realistic numbers you have to use based on what's happening in the Sheriff's Department right now. Let's take a deeper look. I did it by month here, from January 2025 all the way through March of 2026, the last completed month that the Sheriff's Department provided. You can see the fastest quintile is still creeping up here on the left side, and the slowest quintile is also creeping up on the right side. And you can see it visualized here on the average as well. So we go from an average of 188 days in January now to 205 days in March on average. So not only is it taking a long time for the Sheriff's Department to execute these, but it is taking an even longer time as we go on. That's evidenced here if you just do March to March. You even the fastest cases are taking 16 days longer. The average cases are taking 22 days longer, and the slower cases are taking 34 days longer. Over 250 days per— from— for the delinquency process from start to finish if you're in that slowest quintile. I don't even want to know what it is if you're in the bottom 1%. Some of these cases go on years and years, but this should give a reasonable expectation of where you will fall if you initiate one of these cases today, start to finish. So what are the implications? What does this all mean? Well, I know it's an uncomfortable subject, locking people out of their home where they live, but it really is necessary. It's necessary to enforce law and order. It's necessary to enforce contracts, and it really benefits those tenants who are doing the right thing and paying rent and not getting locked out of their, uh, their units, to have a system in place that enforces this, to create predictability for the market, for, for property owners. One of the main reasons that the shift was made from LT to the Sheriff's Department was for safety, for tenant safety. A proposal that I forwarded is that after you get the judgment of possession— so a judge has already ruled, there's, there's already been due process, the judge has evaluated the merits on both sides, and the judge has determined that possession should return to the owner Once that has occurred, permit the utility companies to shut off utilities at the direction of the property owner after the statutory deadline of the, of the required date. So per— so again, due process is complete. The judge has determined possession is to be returned. It's a nonviolent way to alleviate a burden to the sheriff's department and to return to possession of the property in a nonviolent way to the property owner. Have the water be able to shut off, have the electric be able to shut off. Again, No gunfire is going to be involved, no stabbings. It's going to be a nonviolent way to return possession quickly. It will alleviate some of the burden for the Sheriff's Department, and it will return possession to property owners in a more expedient timeline than what we're currently dealing with, which is an average of 7.7 months. So thank you for tuning in to my video here with the Rowe Report. Don't forget to subscribe to the free newsletter and stay tuned. Over time, I will update as this situation changes. Thank you.
